Sloe Bug (Dolycoris baccarum)

Sloe Bug (Dolycoris baccarum (Linnaeus, 1758))

Scientific name: Dolycoris baccarum (Linnaeus, 1758)
Common name: Sloe Bug
French name: Punaise des baies, Pentatome des baies
Order: Heteroptera
Family: Pentatomidae
Wingspan : 11-12 mm
Biotope: Woodland edges, waste lands, hedgerows, parks and gardens.
Geographic area: Europe, Asia east to China.
Observation period : All year long.

The Sloe Bug is a general purple reddish ground colour with a black punctuation. The scutellum is a yellow ochre colour, especially the tip which is not punctuated. The front of the scutellum is sometimes reddish.
The pronotum is covered with long hairs. The antennae and the connexivum are banded white and black.
The ground colour turns to dull brown in winter.
It feeds on fruits and leaves of many plants.
The larvae are hairy.
The Sloe Bug over winters at the adult stage.
The similar species, Dolycoris numidicus, you can observe in North Africa or on the Canary Islands, is impossible to differentiate on pictures.
The Brown Marmorated Stink Bug, Halyomorpha halys, which is a more spotted greyish brown colour, only shows two white segments on the antennae (with one at the junction of two articles). The Sloe Bug shows three white rings on the antennae. The Brown Marmorated Stink Bug also shows white spots at the base of the Scutellum. Sloe Bugs are missing these white spots.
Rhaphigaster nebulosa, which is amore greyish colour, also shows three white rings on the antennae but the pronotum is hairless and the membranous wings are spotted with black.

Sloe Bug (Dolycoris baccarum) - Yvelines, France - April 24th 2011

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